"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss."

Thus wrote Christopher Marlowe many many years ago, describing Helen of Troy, which launched the Trojan wars in ancient Greece. 

This blog seems to be starting like one of S Ve Shekhar's plays "Kaattile mazhe".  In the middle of the play, the protagonist says "Kaattile mazhe", his friend asks why...he says, that's the title of this play...and I had to say it somewhere!!!

I really don't know why I started off this way...perhaps I'll find out along the way!

Today's been a day of memories...walking down memory lane!  Again, this is quite inexplicable...quite an ordinary day, like any other.  And yet, I kept getting dragged to the past - in more ways than one!  Perhaps the fact that I chose to write this blog is one...some very pleasant memories from the past. 

The thought process itself started off on a rather macabre note!  A friend from BITS Pilani passed away recently - he had just turned forty!!! I'd been to his house to offer my condolences, and in such gloomy circumstances, got to meet a lot of friends from BITS days - people I had not met in the last 20 odd years!  Of course, we were glad to be meeting again, though sorrowful that it had to happen in such a setting.  I was also glad that a number of people told me I hadn't changed much in these twenty years, for which I must thank L'Oreal!!! :-)  Well, of course, I still looked quite fit and trim - almost like how I did when I used to play football for college; incidentally, that's how most people in BITS know me - more for my extra curricular activities on the games field, than for my academic prowess.  Off course, I've learnt to wear clothes that show me in good light too...one that does not expose my slight paunch or non-muscular arms! 

I used to be extremely fit and very athletic, lost the athletic part when I injured my knee, but continued to remain physically agile and fit, until I went to Dubai!  Was it because I lost the inspiration to be fit?!!! I wonder!  It took me a good fifteen years and a shocking medical report that showed me as suffering from diabesity, that knocked me back in action.  I went on a crash diet, resumed my physical fitness regimen (long walks in the morning, some swimming now and then) to regain some level of fitness and lose 10 kilos in the process.  But somewhere along the way, I had become "soft"!!! No more the well-toned muscles of an athlete!  I never liked the idea of going to a gym; it was too static an activity for someone who has been an outdoor sportsperson all his life. 

Perhaps, the meeting of old friends will be motivation to tone those muscles once again!  After all, I'm going into student-mode again...might as well act like one again!!!

Now, was that the reason for the nostalgia?!!! Keep guessing!